A Sea of Faces/Un Mar de Caras
A Sea of Faces is a student response to SVMA exhibitions that were displayed during the A.R.T.S. course: Judy O’Shea: Permutations and Valentin Popov: Modern Mixmaster.
Due to public health restrictions, the gallery exhibition scheduled for March 18-April 5, 2020 had to be canceled. But we celebrate the creativity of A.R.T.S. students by featuring some of their artworks in slideshows below.
Major Sponsors: Rosemary & Kevin McNeely, Sonoma Plein Air,
Community Foundation Sonoma County
Headlines in the Paper/Cabezas en Papel
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Sarah Parker
5th grade students at Sonoma Charter School
Classroom Teacher: Rebecca Perkins
After a lesson on facial proportions and completing a basic outline drawing, students began to build up self-portraits from bleached, boiled kozo fiber that they peeled, shredded, and painstakingly arranged and then dried. Three giant buckets of kozo slurry later, something rather lumpy, white, and uninteresting emerged… until the light shone through.
My Everyday Hero/Mi Héroe Diario
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Cindy Imhoff-Bruininks
5th grade students at Saint Francis Solano
Classroom Teacher: Michelle Momsen
Inspired by the work of Valentin Popov, students used drawing exercises to explore the everyday experiences that contribute to their happiness, safety, or success. They then created a portrait of their true everyday hero, focusing on accurate proportions, color, and composition. Beautiful, embossed metal was used to create a frame and make each one even more special.
Poet Kites/Cometas Poetas
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Robin Perkins
4th grade students at Saint Francis Solano
Classroom Teacher: Cindy Imhoff-Bruininks
Using the work of Judy O’Shea as a point of departure, students explored the process of upcycling by transforming paper from a shredder into handmade paper sculptures. Next, students wrote cinquain poems to convey a mood or emotion and describe aspects of their lives ranging from favorite activities and food to seasons, animals, family, and home.
School of Fish/Banco de Peces
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Diane Egger-Bovet
5th grade students at El Verano Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Savannah Whitley
This project took inspiration from both Judy O’Shea’s sculptural paper installations and Valentin Popov’s paintings of water. Students explored how line and color could help create the feeling of water, used kozo fiber to sculpt fish rich in texture, and then mixed medias to create large, translucent panels that let the light in to create a dimensional, aquarium experience.
Until they have faces/Hasta que tengan caras
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Sarah Parker
5th grade students at El Verano Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Nora Alexander-Short
Unafraid to unnerve anyone, we decided to blend the human form with something… inhuman. Flowers, seedpods, fruits, and anything organic were all fair game, but something about fruit seemed to be particularly appealing. Papier-mâché, paper clay, and masks helped us create the basic structure, then paint, some glass eye trickery, and kozo fiber leaves finished the job. Care to take a bite?
Stones Stones Stones/Piedras Piedras Piedras
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Alice Pennes
5th grade students at Sassarini Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Glendi Henion
The students began the process by observing rocks obtained from a local vineyard, sketching them, and then building up the forms with newspaper and masking tape. They then refined the shapes with papier-mâché. Students finished by layering and blending paint. The final pieces resemble real volcanic rocks, which is especially fitting because they were collected from the volcanic Mayacamas mountain range along the eastern ridge of Sonoma Valley.
Layers of Self/Capaz de Uno Mismo
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Alice Pennes
5th grade students at Sassarini Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Ronette Wesson
Inspired by Valentin Popov and his paintings that capture expression and convey mood, students used photographs to capture very intricate, lifelike versions of themselves. Students then chose either warm or cool colors as a way to even further tell a story to the viewer. Layers of texture and detail were built up with watercolor, acetate, markers, and kozo paper.
Student Icons: The Power of You & Me
Expanding the Square: Positive & Negative Shapes
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Miki Hsu Leavey
4th grade students at Sassarini Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Maggie Pat
The class participated in conversations about power, about special skills that comic heroes have, and about themselves. If they could have a special power, what would it be? The students named their powers and then built their own iconic self-portraits encased in beaded, shiny mixed mediums.
Portraits in Clay/Retratos en Arcilla
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Diane Egger-Bovet
3rd, 4th & 5th grade students at Prestwood Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Mekiele Perkins
This class talked a lot about faces, expressions, and self portraits. First they explored masks made out of their own handmade paper. Then they turned to clay! Each finished piece is unique with loads of character. Some students even chose to add kozo fiber as hair, making them a true synergy of both Valentin Popov and Judy O’Shea’s work.
The Pool/La Alberca
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Diane Egger-Bovet
4th grade students at Prestwood Elementary
Classroom Teachers: Katie Grimes, Aja Roberts, and Molly Beglin
How does water move? How does light affect the color? How many variations of blue are there? How do you represent all of that in paint and in clay? Watch the light dance across this collaborative piece, exploring the nuance and beauty of water.
Hands & The Eyes Have It/
Manos and Los Ojos lo Tienen
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Diane Egger-Bovet
4th grade students at Sassarini Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Maria Phan
This project began with two canvases that all the students had a hand in painting. One was used to showcase the tooled copper hands (inspired by Popov’s Icons), and the other became the loom upon which all of the other elements could be woven. Kozo eyes became the clouds floating above a sea of poems, written on our own handmade paper.
Eyes of the Beholders/Ojos de los Observadores
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Jill Valavanis
4th grade students at Sonoma Charter School
Classroom Teacher: Nadine Harmon
One of the principles of design is repetition, which creates a sense of unity, consistency, and cohesiveness. This principle is used effectively in this collaborative piece that turns and changes with the movement of the air.
Air Containers/Recipientes de Aire
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Jill Valavanis
4th grade students at Flowery Elementary
Classroom Teachers: Lydia Calderon and Liliana Zepeda
The students were very interested in the work of Judy O’Shea and loved the idea of suspended three-dimensional pieces, especially those that glow from within. Students were encouraged to think of building abstract three-dimensional forms as creating “something that would hold air.” The finished pieces, made from fruit tree branches, copper wire, and paper, are fittingly… breathtaking.
Behind My Head is a Background/
Detrás de mi Cabeza hay un Fondo
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Jill Valavanis
5th grade students at Flowery Elementary
Classroom Teachers: Lara Shumer and Greg Campbell
Can the feeling of a portrait be affected by the background? To find out, each student had their photo taken and was then randomly assigned two emotions: surprised, tired, happy, bored, angry, playful, shy, frightened, or sad. One emotion was then expressed as a watercolor painting and the other, a collage. Can you guess which emotion is expressed in each background?
Beware Falling Iguanas & A Flutter of Butterflies/
Atención a Iguanas Cayendo y el Aleteo de Mariposas
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Sarah Parker
4th & 5th grade students at Dunbar Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Alejandra Solis-Perez
Here, delicate, flat kozo-fiber wings became dimensional butterflies and large, flat watercolor paintings became undulating lizards. Both creatures (when not in paper form) are threatened by the actions of humans and by climate change.
Jolly Jellyfish/Medusa Feliz
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Sarah Parker
3rd, 4th & 5th grade students at Dunbar Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Melina Porter
First it was going to be a face, formed out of paper clay on a spare piece of aluminum screen. Then it became a swirling ocean mixed and squished by eager, tiny hands. Finally, it became a large, round blue disk, and… a jellyfish was born! It now trails with the evidence of our various explorations along the way into metal, mask-making, paper-making, kozo fiber, and fabric dyeing.
Hold On/Agárrese
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Elizabeth Feroze
4th grade students at El Verano Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Dave Kohnhorst
Inspired by Judy O’Shea’s installation work, students sought to create a piece that was both dimensional and interactive. Here, plaster strip hands meet india ink paintings and torn and dyed fabric to create a monochromatic yet vibrant feel.
Face Painting/Pinturas de Caras
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Sarah Parker
4th and 5th grade students at Dunbar Elementary
Classroom Teacher: Brandy Melendy
Fascinated by Valentin Popov’s portraits, students explored facial proportions, drew self-portraits, and then transferred them to canvas. With care, students planned their backgrounds, mixed their exact skin tones, and blended colors from a CMY palette (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow versus traditional Red, Blue, and Yellow). Midtones, Shadows, and Highlights were discussed and demonstrated and then the creative process took over.
Colorful and Brilliant Faces
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SVMA Teaching Artist: Rosemary McNeely
4th and 5th grade students at The Presentation School
Classroom Teachers: Jamie Mitchell & Mary Galas
Inspired by Valentin Popov’s book FACE, students composed, shot, and edited their own photographs. They then used these photos as references for graphite drawings. Following in class discussions about the nuances of facial expressions the angle of a frown, the urgent bend of an eyebrow—students were careful to use deliberate strokes to get the effects that they wanted.
Read Rosemary McNeely’s, SVMA teaching artist, statement about the FACES project
Cloud Patrol for Humanity
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SVMA Teaching Artist : Gary Griffith
4th and 5th grade students at El Verano Elementary
Classroom Teachers: Cory Decker & Jack Gray
5th grade students at Prestwood Elementary
Classroom Teachers: Renea Magnani & Sharai Moreno Hernandez
A transformation of the artistic styles of both Judy O’Shea and Valentin Popov. Floating kozo paper clouds provide shelter for self-portrait superheroes who have joined together to protect humanity. The soul of humanity is represented through portraits of an eye. The students created handmade paper, which is layered, curled, and then sewn together to further represent humanity through hair.
